Interesting peter gammon's note

[Guest Some Guy]

When Dave Winfield essentially auctioned off his Hall of Fame plaque cap to the highest bidder, it forced the Hall to change the rule so that the player will no longer decide what cap he wears into the Hall. As one Cooperstown official notes, this means that no matter what side deals Wade Boggs made with the Devil Rays and Roger Clemens with the Yankees, when they are enshrined in Cooperstown, they will have Boston caps on their plaques. Which means Boggs and Clemens will have uniform-retiring ceremonies at Fenway Park.

 

 

I like the new rule for the fact that it prevents Boggs from going in as a Devil Ray, however I think Roger should be able to choose what hat to wear.  Being from Boston I know that there is a lot of tension between the Sox and those 2 players which should make the retirenment ceremonies interesting.

 

What do you think of the new rule?  Would the rule force Barry Bonds to go in as a Pirate? Griffey Jr. as a Mariner?  Big Mac as an A? etc...  And what the hell would they do with Rickey Henderson? He's played for NYY, Oak (4 times, I think), Tor, Sea, SD, NYM, and now Boston.

[Guest franchise632]

While I think that its ridiculous for Wade Boggs to go into the hall as a Devil Ray, I dont like a full regulation by the hall to dictate which team the player will enter the hall under. I do however feel that they should make sure that there are no deals for money or what not that the player make his choice. It should be something along the line of the player should go in under the team he accomplished the most with or the team that he is most recognized as being a part of. I think clearly that that a guy like Ricky Henderson should go in as a member of the A's, Big Mac broke the HR record as a Card and should go in with a St. Louis cap, same for Barry with the Giants. i think it should be a combination of players choice, hall of fame and maybe include the fans. Something does need to be done though.

[Guest alkeiper]

Hopefully it'll just be used to make sure comment sense prevails.  It'll get infinitely more complicated when and if Randy Johnson, Roberto Alomar, Fred McGriff, and David Cone go to the Hall.

[Guest Choken One]

Let the players choose what they want to retire in. If Wade Boggs wants to sell his entire career and go in as a Devil Ray, then let him. He would show his true feelings about the game anyways.

 

Mark McGwire? A's or Cards? A world series ring with Oakland and about 9 good years and the home run record with St. Louis and played good 4 years. Depends on which he values more, His world series (something Barry Bonds does not have) or his broken home run record.

 

Junior? If he ever gets his world series with the Reds and gets his 600th homer, he'll retire a RED because he would like to hang next to his father in a reds uniform.

 

Roger Clemens?-If I were him, Yankees would be the ideal choice, his rings came from N.Y, not Boston. He will get his 300th win as a Yankee and he had great numbers with Yanks. If  he don't want to cause anger, let him retire as a Blue Jay.

 

Rickey Henderson?-Oakland. No question. 4 times with them, world series. However, knowing Rickey, He'll retire as a Red Sox if they give him enough money.

 

IMO, let the players choose. It's their career they wish to define.

[Guest DrTom]

"What do you think of the new rule?"

 

I think it sucks.  The player should retain the choice; his reason for making the choice is totally irrelevant.  If he's got a deal worked out with some team to wear their cap, so be it.  People carp about "loyalty" in a sport that is completely devoid of it.

 

From what Gammons said, it sounds like the players' first team is the one whose cap goes on his head.  Or maybe it's the team he accrued the most time with.  I like Gammons, but I wish he'd stop being such a Boston writer when he writes for ESPN.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

I don't mind the rule. Is it gonna kill Roger Clemens if he goes in with Boston. That's where I'll remember Clemens mostly with Boston and I think he had his years there.

[Guest Some Guy]

From what Gammons said, it sounds like the players' first team is the one whose cap goes on his head.  Or maybe it's the team he accrued the most time with.  I like Gammons, but I wish he'd stop being such a Boston writer when he writes for ESPN.

I personally like the fact that Gammons is a Boston writer because that's where I live, but I understand your point.  Gammons chose to go the BU because it's only 2 blocks from Fenway and he wrote for the Boston Globe for years before going to ESPN.  He regularly appears on Boston's sports radio stations, WEEI (the highest rated sports station in the country) and The Zone.  He is definately a Red Sox fan, which is good as far as I'm concerned because we rarley get the respect from the national sports media that we deserve.  Joe Morgan in particular is very anti-Sox.

[Guest Choken One]

Why should he be? We beat the pathetic Red Sox. It's not like they won and ever will. Why support a team that chokes more then anyone else? We may suck at times but we can point at our world championships.

[Guest Some Guy]

Who's "WE"?  

I'm guessing "we" is the Mets, if so they did a *GREAT* job against NYY in 2000 and what's their record against the Braves in the last few years? If your not a Mets fan then I'm sorry for being mistaken.

How is the team with the best record in MLB (20-7) pathetic, granted we've only played one good team who we beat 3-4, BTW?  

And the Cubs and White Sox have had longer WS-less droughts than the Sox.

 

I'll grant you that the Sox have choked a lot in their history post-Ruth, we did win 5 WS before 1919, including the first ever WS against Pit. So we can point to our WS as well. 

The Red Sox also have a legion of fans across the country ("Red Sox Nation" as it is called) who feel it's important enough to go to games in Montreal, Tampa, Fla, KC and start "let's go Red Sox" chants.  How many times have the Mets (still assuming you're a Mets fan) garnered that type of reaction, do they even garner that reaction at home or are 80% of New yorkers at the Yankees game?  In adition we sell out virtually every home game despite having a 90 year old park and the highest ticket prices in MLB.  How's the Mets' attendance?  Furthermore the last 2 years the 2 stations in Boston who carry the games have set new Ratings records for the Sox.  How's the Mets Ratings?

So I guess that their quite a few people who would support "a team that chokes more then anyone else", after all.

 

 

EDIT:  If you're not a Mets fan, which I think I remember you saying before, then I sould run down a similar list for almost every other team in the magors, NYY excluded./  Oak choked i 88, 90, 2000, 20001 and don't draw flys.  Sea choked in 2000, 2001.  ETC...

 

And flaming the Red Sox and their fans is not a good way to get your point across.  Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[Guest alkeiper]

The Red Sox can point at 5 world championships.  They might have earned a 6th had John McGraw opted to play the Sox in the '04 W.S.  All 4 times they lost the Series they lost it in 7 games, and all 4 times they lost to teams listed omongst the greatest of all time.  In addition, their .512 All time Winning Percentage is substantially better than the Mets' .476 Winning Percentage.

 

The Mets have choked.  How about Kenny Rogers' game ending WALK?  Or the Mets' blowups in the waning days of last season?  How about the '88 Mets bowing in 7 games to the Dodgers?  How about the '73 Mets blowing a 3-2 game lead in the World Series?  How about losing 100 games 5 out of 6 years?  How about the "Worst Team Money Can Buy?"

 

The Mets have lost 100 games 6 times in 40 years.  It took the Red Sox 100 years to do that, and they haven't lost 100 since 1965.  Unlucky?  Yes.  Pathetic?  I'd say not.  The Mets on the other hand.......

[Guest Choken One]

By "we" was refering to the TEAM Joe Morgan played for. Not the sorry ass mets. The Sox are one of my favorite teams but I still find it amazing how often they fall short.

[Guest Some Guy]

Then as I said i would do, I apollogize for the the Mets comments.

 

Why should Morgan respect the Red Sox?

Lets see, in 1975 the Sox took the "Big Red Machine" to game 7 of a WS that the Sox were massive underdogs in.  That should be enough for Morgan because the Sox gave the Reds everything they could handle and more and provided arguably the best WS ever, although last years was incredible.  Fisk's extra inning walk off Homer with the arm waving is amongst the most famous monents in MLB history, but I digress.

 

I think Morgan dislikes the Red Sox because of their hisory under the Tom Yawkey Era of racism, which has been totally reversed and Dwight Evans robbing him of a HR in the 75 WS.  I dislike Morgan anyway so my theory might be a result of my bias towards him.  He may not be so petty (about the HR, not the racism)but it's possible.

[Guest alkeiper]

Hmm.  What's odd is that Morgan managed the Red Sox from '88-'90.  Maybe its connected to that?

[Guest Some Guy]

Different Joe Morgan the Sox manager was a white guy, I'm talking about ESPN commentater/HOF'er Joe Morgan.

[Guest alkeiper]

My mistake.

[Guest DrTom]

"Gammons chose to go the BU because it's only 2 blocks from Fenway and he wrote for the Boston Globe for years..."

 

I know his background; I used to read a lot of his syndicated newspaper columns before he "hit it big" with ESPN.  My point was that when he's writing for a national news outlet like ESPN, he shouldn't show off his Boston roots as much as he does.  I'm sure a lot of players other than Roger Clemens could be affected by the rule, as well as a lot of teams beside the Red Sox.

[Guest Some Guy]

I know that, I listed quite a few in the firdt post, but those Boggs and Clemens are 2 sure fire HOF'ers who would be effected.  It just so happens that they have Boston roots and a lot of heat with the Sox, that's what makes it an interesting story.  Ripken and Tony Gwinn played for the same team for their whole careers and love their respective organizations apparently, so there is no story there or question as to what hat they're going to wear, unless you want to get nit picky about style changes in the hats over their carreers.

 

I also agree that he shouldn't show his roots as much which I already wrote the other day.  I also like it because I'm a Red Sox fan, I think you're a Baltimore fan so if Gammons was from there and an Orioles fan you might like it too.